


Force of Habit

by Yrindor



Category: Bleach
Genre: Anxiety, Future Fic, Illnesses, M/M, Medical Procedures, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-09 13:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5541380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ukitake gets sick while in the Human World, a worried Shunsui drags him to Karakura General Hospital.  They are seen by one of residents currently on rotation in the ER, who turns out to be none other than Ishida Uryū.  Ultimately though, Ukitake's trust in Shunsui may prove to be more important than Ishida's medical skills.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Force of Habit

**Author's Note:**

> Set several years post-canon, but ignores most of canon after the Fake Karakura Town arc.
> 
> All characters belong to Kubo Tite.

Dr. Ishida Uryū, second-year resident at Karakura General Hospital, sighed as he entered the break room. He was twenty hours into a thirty-hour shift in the ER, and he desperately wanted to get off of his feet for a few minutes. It had been one of the first hot and humid summer days, and a steady stream of patients suffering from heatstroke and dehydration had kept him on his feet nearly constantly. Muttering to himself about idiots who didn't know their own limits, Ishida pulled out a mug to make himself a cup of tea, wishing, not for the first time, that he could have coffee or energy drinks like his coworkers did. But stimulants of any sort made him slightly jittery, and he hated the feel of less than perfect control over his body, so he stuck with tea and glared at anyone who dared comment.

Before he even had a chance to pour water for his tea though, he felt a massive surge of poorly contained reiatsu enter the hospital. Captain-level shinigami, two of them by the feel of it, and they were in the emergency department of Karakura General. That was enough to cause him to turn and head right back out of the break room, leaving his mug forgotten on the counter. While it was not unusual to sense the presence of shinigami around Karakura Town, it was exceedingly unusual for the shinigami to come to the hospital. Usually they either patched themselves up or returned to the Soul Society and had the Fourth Division heal them. Unless they were in a gigai, almost none of the hospital staff would be able to see them, and Ryūken did not exactly make them feel welcome regardless. With a brief thanks that his father was currently out of the country at a conference, Ishida strode down the hall towards the ER trying to imagine what injuries would force a shinigami, and a captain-level one at that, to come to his ER. The pager at his hip buzzed, and as he turned the final corner, he nearly ran into one of the interns.

"Ishida-sensei," the intern panted, out of breath and clearly shaken. "I just paged you. There's an unstable patient in Exam Room 2 in serious condition. He looks terrible."

"Thank you, Matsuda-san," Ishida replied without breaking his stride, already beginning to organize his approach. Matsuda's uneasiness worried him; the intern was usually very grounded and not easily shaken. Navigating the crowded emergency room at a brisk walk, Ishida made his way to the exam room, and his stride hitched in surprise as he entered.

Based on the limited information he had, he had expected to see severe injuries with lots of blood and broken bones. He had most definitely not expected to see the captain of the Eighth Division pacing and looking uncharacteristically serious as the captain of the Thirteenth Division sat on the edge of the bed, his forearms braced against his thighs and the muscles in his neck standing out in stark relief as he struggled to breathe through blue-tinged lips.

"Ukitake, what happened?" Ishida snapped, grabbing the chart from the foot of the bed, only to discover that, in their haste to summon him, no one had written anything useful on it beyond Ukitake's name. He dropped the chart back on the bed, muttering about incompetent idiots, and looked to Ukitake, who tried to speak, but only managed to trigger a coughing fit that left him with blood flecking the corners of his mouth.

"Kyōraku, give me the brief history. I'll get details later," Ishida said, sparing a brief glance at the still-pacing captain before starting to make notes on the chart.

"You know Jyū's had chronic bronchitis for most of his life. We were battling an unusually large pack of Hollows this afternoon, and Jyū probably overdid it a bit, especially since heat and humidity don't always agree with his lungs. He didn't sound so great this evening, but no worse than his usual flare-ups, so we figured we'd spend one more night here, wrap up with Urahara, and head back to Soul Society in the morning. When Jyū's coughing woke me up in the middle of the night and wouldn't break though, we decided he needed a hospital sooner rather than later. Normally we'd head back and have Unohana look at him, but in the state he's in now, I'm afraid getting out of his gigai would be too much of a shock for his system."

Ishida nodded in acknowledgement before walking over to Matsuda, who was hovering nervously in the doorway, and rattling off a list of instructions and supplies in a low voice. Matsuda rushed off, seemingly relieved to get away from the room, and Ishida turned back to his patient.

"Ukitake, I want to check your vital signs and start supplemental oxygen for you now. Once Matsuda comes back, I'm going to draw some labs and start you on some medications that hopefully will clear your lungs some. Okay?"

When Ukitake nodded, Ishida grabbed a pulse oximeter and blood pressure cuff from the head of the bed and the stethoscope from around his neck. After a minute, he looked up at Ukitake.

"Do you know what your oxygen saturation is normally?" he asked.

Ukitake looked over at Shunsui, who answered for him. "It's usually 92, 93%, but it drops into the mid-80s when he has a flare up. What is it now?"

"78%," Ishida said, frowning at the monitor. As soon as he spoke, he felt Shunsui's reiatsu flare even more. "Kyōraku, control your reiatsu!" he snapped. "As a captain, you should have better control than this. You're affecting any of my staff that come near this room."

Without waiting for a response, Ishida turned back to Ukitake. "Your blood pressure and oxygen saturation are both low, and your heart rate is high. It also sounds like you have fluid building up in your lungs; if it still sounds like that one we have you more stable, I'd like to get a chest x-ray. For now, I'm going to start you on supplemental oxygen and hook up an EKG just to be safe."

Ishida helped Ukitake shift so that he was sitting propped up in the bed rather than perching on the edge of it, and then he started hooking up various monitors and machines. As he adjusted the last of the cords, Matsuda re-entered the room with the requested supplies, looking far calmer now that Shunsui's reiatsu was under control. After dismissing the intern, Ishida grabbed what he needed from the table and pulled a chair up beside the bed.

"I want to run an arterial blood gas analysis," he explained. "It will give us a baseline for your respiratory function. It's obvious your lungs aren't doing well right now, but this will give me more details about what's happening. I'd like to do that as soon as possible to minimize the changes from the supplemental oxygen. Have you ever had this done before?"

When Ukitake shook his head, Ishida looked over at Shunsui, startled. "This is the first time Jyū's gotten too sick in the Human World to make it back to Soul Society. Unohana doesn't need tests; she can just use kidō ," Shunsui explained, still pacing.

Ishida turned back to Ukitake. "This is almost the same as a standard blood draw, except I'll be using the artery in your wrist instead of a vein. It will feel similar to that or an IV, though likely a bit more painful as it's in a more sensitive area. Is that okay?"

Ukitake nodded again, though Ishida noticed a slight increase in his heart rate when he glanced at the monitor. He ignored it as he took Ukitake's left hand and checked the circulation in the arteries. Once he was satisfied, he placed a roll of gauze on the bed under Ukitake's wrist to support it in the position he wanted.

"First, I'm going to disinfect the area," Ishida explained as he pulled on gloves and tore open antiseptic wipes; however, the moment he grasped Ukitake's wrist and began cleaning the area over the artery, Ukitake flinched, trying to pull his arm back, and multiple alarms sounded as his heart rate skyrocketed and he began hyperventilating and coughing.

Ishida quickly released his hold on the man's arm, but before he could say anything, Shunsui was at the bedside. "Breathe for me, Jyū," he ordered. "Just like we were taught. In and out. Nice and slow. Keep breathing." As he spoke, Shunsui rubbed small circles on Ukitake's shoulder, and Ukitake's breathing and heart rate started to settle back to what they had been before.

"Kyōraku, talk to me. What happened?" Ishida asked, unwilling to do anything until he knew what had caused Ukitake's panic.

"It's training taking over, isn't it Jyū?" Shunsui asked, looking at Ukitake who was looking down and clearly embarrassed by his reaction.

When Ukitake nodded, Shunsui explained for Ishida. "We've both been shinigami for a long time, and the first thing we all learned in training is always to protect the arteries. Neck? That's easy; it's instinct to protect it. But wrists? It's far too easy to throw up a hand the wrong way and end up dead. In two-thousand years, we've both witnessed that too many times. It's a force of habit, Uryū. Even if Jyū understands the need for this rationally, his instinct's still there. You can be as rational as you like, but it's not going to help here. You're trying to fight a couple millennia on the battlefield; no one comes out of that unmarked."

Ishida sat back, irritated at his inability to fix the situation logically. He was used to using his rationality to control even the most difficult situations, bringing in additional nurses or doctors when necessary, but he could tell that was not going to work in this situation. Ukitake's reiatsu was barely under control; if he panicked, he'd likely lose control of it completely, especially if his panic triggered another coughing fit, and Kyōraku's reiatsu was responding to Ukitake as well. If he tried to push through as he normally would, he'd end up with two captain-level shinigami with reiatsu flaring out of control. He was fairly certain he'd be the only person able to work in the room under those conditions, and it would be a challenge even for him. And if that weren't enough, that amount of reiatsu would be a magnet for Hollows, and with Ukitake and Kyōraku here, he suspected there weren't enough shinigami active in Karakura to deal with a new attack. He really did not want to have to explain to Ryūken how he had let Karakura General Hospital be damaged by Hollows while his father was out of town. Clearly, he was going to need a different approach.

Before Ishida could come up with a plan, Shunsui sat down on the edge of the bed next to Ukitake and wrapped his arms around him. "Jyū, I can help you with this if you want," he said quietly. "If you'll let me, I'll keep watch for both of us, so you don't have to."

When he finished, Shunsui fell silent, continuing to hold Ukitake, but not making any movements of his own. He knew what he was asking of Ukitake, and he did not ask it lightly, but he thought it was the best, and perhaps only, way to keep Ukitake calm for Ishida. The choice of whether or not to agree to it needed to be Ukitake's alone though, and Shunsui was careful not to do anything that might sway him one way or the other.

After a long pause, Ukitake shifted to rest his head more comfortably against Shunsui's shoulder, careful to avoid knocking the mask off of his face in the process. "I trust you," he whispered before closing his eyes.

Shunsui waited until he heard Ukitake's breathing slip into the familiar pattern of meditation before he nodded to Ishida to continue. When Ishida picked up a fresh antiseptic wipe and went to take Ukitake's hand, he noticed that Shunsui's hold was also helping to brace the white-haired shinigami's arm in the position he needed.

"Jyū, Uryū-kun's just going to clean off your wrist now. You're safe. He can't hurt you with this," Shunsui said as Ishida worked. He could feel Ukitake tensing under him, but he was no longer panicking.

When Ishida finished and picked up the syringe, Shunsui caught his eye and clearly indicated that he should wait. Ishida released Ukitake's wrist and sat back in his chair, willing to let Shunsui take the lead. He wasn't normally one to relinquish control, but he knew he couldn't handle the situation on his own; the only thing stopping Ukitake from panicking was the trust he had developed over a couple of millennia with Shunsui. Even if he were the best doctor in the world, he wouldn't be able to compare to that.

For his part, Shunsui knew the next part of the procedure was going to be the most critical. If Ukitake wasn't completely relaxed going into it, he would panic. If he panicked before Ishida started, they might be able to calm him down and try again, but if he panicked once the needle was in his wrist, especially if that led to complications, he wouldn't be able to let anyone near his wrists no matter how calm he was. They had to get it right the first time, and Shunsui was willing to take as long as necessary to make sure once was enough. He could tell from the way Ukitake had tensed when Ishida cleaned his wrist that they weren't there yet.

"Jyū, you're doing great," he said gently, running one hand through Ukitake's hair, "but I want you to relax even more for me. Let me take everything for you. After two thousand years, I know you as I know myself. I've seen empires rise and fall, seen the world change as countless generations have passed in front of me, but through all of it, you've been there alongside me. I'm not willing to lose you, Jyū; I'd go to the ends of the world to save you, as you would for me, and we both know that. So let me protect you now. Let me take everything, all of your fears, your pain, the reflexes developed through centuries of endless fighting. Let me take them so that you don't have to carry them yourself. You don't have to do anything except be. Be and know that I have you."

Shunsui felt Ukitake relax into him as he spoke, slipping into a state similar to deep meditation. Just as he felt Ukitake release the final thread of awareness that had been keeping him anchored in the here and now, he felt the brief brush of his zanpakutō against his mind as Katen Kyokotsu passed on a similar message from Sogyō no Kotowari. When Shunsui freed his hand from Ukitake's hair and returned it to his previous position bracing his arm, Ukitake barely moved. Satisfied that Ukitake was sufficiently calm now, Shunsui nodded to Ishida.

Ishida uncapped the syringe and reached out to take Ukitake's hand again, trying to keep his own nerves under control. It was unlike him to worry about so simple a procedure, but he couldn't forget the barely contained power that resided in the two other men in the room, power that was liable to break out if he made the slightest mistake.

No sooner had he began to feel the spike of his own anxiety than he felt a tendril of Shunsui's reiatsu pushing at him, calm, but with an edge of warning. Ishida stopped and took a few deep breaths to center himself, trying to internalize the calm Shunsui was projecting before he undid the captain's work with his own nervous energy. Then he placed his fingers against the pulse in Ukitake's wrist and visualized the artery running under the skin, trying to gain the same calm focus he had when he was using his bow.

While Ishida worked, Shunsui kept up his monologue. "I still have you Jyū; you're still safe," he murmured. "We've shared everything for so long we can become one. Everything you have to do, everything you want to do out of reflex, I have it, and I'll take care of it for you.

"Breathe with me now," he said, nodding at Ishida. "Let me do the thinking, all you have to do is follow me; there is nothing else." As Shunsui and Ukitake exhaled as a pair, Ishida slipped the needle into the inside of Ukitake's wrist. Ukitake didn't even flinch.

"You're safe, Jyū," Shunsui said, increasing his reiatsu in response to the sliver of worry he felt creeping into Ukitake's. "Trust me, and trust yourself to me. You don't need to think right now, just be; I'll take care of everything for you," he said, and he felt Ukitake's reiatsu slip back under into the same calm place it had been before.

He continued murmuring reassurances to Ukitake until Ishida withdrew the needle and covered the puncture with a piece of gauze. Shunsui immediately took over applying pressure to the site himself, folding the ill shinigami into a warm embrace in the process.

As Ishida prepared the blood sample for transport to the lab, he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. While Kyōraku had been nothing but calm and supportive during the procedure, Ishida hadn't missed the sheer power of his reiatsu, and the knowledge that it could turn on him in an instant if he had slipped.

He could hear Kyōraku speaking softly to Ukitake behind him, starting to bring Ukitake back out of the deep meditation he had fallen into. Ishida wasn't sure exactly what the relationship between the two shinigami was, but whatever it was, the bond between them was stronger than anything he could imagine. As Shunsui had said, the two of them had been on the front lines of war for centuries, and yet Ukitake had willingly dropped his guard and entrusted everything to Kyōraku, and Kyōraku had had taken that trust willingly but not lightly.

Normally, Ishida would have given the sample to one of the nurses to bring down to the lab, but this time he chose to make the trip himself. He felt out of place in the room at the moment; the intimacy between Kyōraku and Ukitake was somewhat overwhelming, and he couldn't help but feel like he was intruding. He left the room quietly, wondering what experiences the two men had had that led to them trusting and caring about one another so unconditionally.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and feedback are welcome.


End file.
